Lessons We Learned From Building A Top 1% Insurance Sales Team

All righty, Mr. Caden, welcome back.

Thank you, sir. It's a crazy trip.

You look well rested.

Very well rested. I slept more than anything else.

Uh, all righty, so you just got back from the Lasting Mark, uh, like yearly annual conference type thing, right, for the insurance company? Yes. What was it like?

It was the best sales event I've ever been to, um, insurance or outside of insurance. It was incredibly good, uh, significantly different than other insurance events that I've been to. They didn't talk anything about recruiting, super family-oriented, um, a lot of really good guest speakers and lots of awards all around. I was, I was blown away, like No expense spared. Fed us every meal, uh, galas and parties every night. It was good.

Okay. All right, that's awesome. And I guess, like, what was the point of going?

Only going networking. There's award ceremonies, uh, so getting to meet everybody in person that we're working with, because a lot of us work virtual. Uh, they're presenting awards, they're kind of recapping, also going over what they're working on new for this year. To let everybody know and get everybody on the same page and going over what the incentive trips are going to look like for this year, which I think we have a pretty good shot of qualifying.

Beautiful, man. And what was it like with the team? So for those of you who don't know, if you're watching, so we have an insurance team called Sniper Insurance, right? And it was kind of the first time everyone getting to meet and mingle in person.

Yeah, it was good. It was really good to meet the team in person and be able to connect with everybody. Everybody came back super fired up. They're all really excited, really ready to go, and really good just to, um, especially because there were a couple of people that were there that, um, you know, like I, I have been trying to connect with and probably could have tried harder virtually And being able to connect with them in person and learn more about what their goals are and just let them know like, hey, I'm going to push you, but I'm pushing you for you. And I think having that in person was a lot better than virtual because then they can feel that it's genuine and it's real. It's really hard to get virtual sales teams correct.

You know? Yeah. Like it's such a, like the management of salespeople is a difficult thing at the best of times. Times, but like when everyone's virtual, especially when everyone has to come in and like with an insurance thing kind of do it off their own back as well, you know. Um, like we, I think we have a lot of systems in place and you can sort of come in and just basically follow the bouncing ball when it comes to like data, getting started, like all that kind of stuff is really just set and forget. However, they still have to do the thing, right? Like you can't make them do it. And then from there, like the motivational ups and downs that sales reps generally have, they have to kind of deal with it by themselves, right? Which is less than ideal for most people because most— and most people just aren't that good at being like self-starters or self-motivated. Like, the, the co-working with other people, it makes them do more than what they usually would. And then it's, it's funny because people who are like really good at self-starting and motivating, offices make you like less, less productive.

Yes, I'm one of those people.

Yeah, me too. Tend to be more social, so it's like you end up doing all these, you know, chatting to everybody, um, and you actually decrease your work. But like, I guess, you know, like, walk me through, I guess, the plan for the next little bit. Like, how are you going to use the momentum and the relationship that you've made over the next little bit to sort of carrying more sales.

Yeah, I think one thing that was pretty evident in the event, which is hilarious because you and I were also talking about it last week and it was reiterated multiple times by multiple, multiple people at the event, is just getting a better understanding of everybody's why. Getting a better understanding of everybody's why so that I can then help them get there a lot just a lot cleaner, a lot easier, make sure that we're chasing their goal at the same time as chasing ours. And I think the other piece is that we need a little bit more product training. Right now we rely heavily on other people for product training. And so coming in, training a little bit more on the products, we already have a ton of sales training. So it's hard to train more on sales, but it takes a long time to get good at sales. And while we were there, one thing that I was realizing is that if we trained a little bit more on product, I think that the reps would be more confident just alone knowing the product, even though they don't necessarily always know what to say.

Do you think that's not knowing the features and the benefits, but that's knowing like the logistical nitty-gritty, how to go through underwriting better, the sort of like, you know, those main skill sets, right?

Well, and insurance is such a wide open can of worms when it comes to products because you have so many different types of products. And so I like the way we do it where we keep it simple on the front end. However, the, the miss that I had was we're keeping it simple on the front end, but we're not accelerating their product knowledge fast enough. And so because they're simple products, that's what we're starting most people on are the simple products because it's like, just get in here, work these ones, learn how to have the conversation, and make some money. However, they need to be learning about all these different types of insurance products. They need to learn more about term products even, or IULs, participating whole life, annuities. There's such a wide open product landscape that we're missing out on that. Also, one thing I did find out that you and I will be talking about here very shortly, is we can also get people going B2B lasting, Mark. We have group benefits that we can offer. And so that is another entire realm of products that we can offer for people that are already doing B2B that don't necessarily like the B2C conversation, but they want to have something that they— because they're still fully vested, they still own their book of business. From day one. And so that they can come in, do what they already know how to do, just keep doing it and offer different product.

Okay, I like that for sure. And I guess like in terms of lasting mark, like I guess what are you seeing as the difference between what's making them work and sort of previous things that you've been, we've been with?

Lasting mark, hands down, best people I've ever been around. Very family-oriented from the top to the bottom. It's the example that I would give is every other company I've been a part of, the only thing anybody gave a shit about was your numbers. But they didn't ask you about your family. They didn't ask about you, why you were doing it. They didn't ask you what you cared about, who you were. And with the Lasting Mark guys, the owners of the company, I've almost never talked about business with them. That, that conversation kind of—

yeah, right.

I've seen me work, I've seen them work. We both have respect for each other in a business sense, but the conversation is always about my family, their family, what that looks like, what we're doing to become better people. Um, you know, they're very centered in Christ, which I like, and It's, uh, it's a much different feel than any— not even just insurance, insurance for sure, but just sales in general. The company, you, you just get— everybody cares about you as a person and your production is second.

Okay, you're at this week. All right, cool. So who was a surprise to you?

I don't know as though anybody was a real surprise. I hadn't met a lot of the Askins family. I met Cody a couple months ago, and Cody was there. We were able to connect a little bit and, and chat.

And Cody worked with Losting Market? Was he like a guest speaker?

No, he's a managing partner.

Uh, okay.

I don't know how much ownership he has, but his dad is the CEO. And so meeting his dad, Brian, I'd never met Brian. I don't— because Brian, his— the way LastingMark came about, Roger Short, who I've met and I love, and Brian came together. Roger was primarily building in life. Brian was primarily building in Medicare and they came together and created LastingMark. And Brian I couldn't be more impressed with him and the entire team. I mean, the tickets for the event were like $99, and like, we're eating the best meals every single meal, like gourmet meals. And that's— first off, that's the first insurance event that I've ever been to that they fed us. And not only are they feeding us, but they're feeding us good stuff. Brian You know, he has his whole family there, grandbabies are there, and just really wholesome people. And so that kind of— I don't know as though it was a surprise, but it was shocking to see the— I, I knew that they were family oriented, but it was a little bit shocking to see the extent of that commitment.

Yeah, I like that. And I guess like, like, what was their perception of, of us there?

Um, people knew us. People knew us. We haven't been here for very long, and so this will be the last year that we don't get an award because we were only with Lasting Mark for 3 months last year, and so we missed the qualification period for most of the awards. But the perception is definitely that we will be getting a lot of awards next year. And what was actually also really cool is we had a couple of agents that got up and spoke on stage because they gave agents a chance to speak on stage at the end.

And yeah, so Mary Jean did a speech.

Yeah, Mary Jean did. And we had another, another one, Darian. Um, both of them got up there and there were only maybe about 5 or 6 agents in the whole company that had gotten up there, and 2 of them were ours, uh, that got up there and just shared.

It was like open season, or was it like they got asked to?

No, it was just end of the event, open mic, come up and give us your takeaways. And yeah, Mary Jean got up there and Darian did as well. And it was really cool to just see that. They almost made me cry, but I kept it in. I kept it in because I'm a man.

Yeah. Push that right down. Along with those, along with those gay thoughts and feelings about this. Yeah, exactly.

Get that, get that back in there.

Get that back, get back in your box. It was really good.

Open it and close it.

Yeah, uh, that's the best play. That's really cool, man. And, um, I guess like, like, what are your What are your wants for next year? Like, what's the thing that like you saw? Did you see any teams that you're like, okay, like they're doing some really cool shit? Like, what did you learn from other leaders that are, that are in the group that like things that we can adopt or, or things that we could do better?

I think things that I learned that we could do better is kind of like I was already talking about, uh, getting a little bit more wide in our products and hitting a few different products. Now I think there's a caveat to that because I don't want to get distracted. Where you focus is going to grow. And so life will still be our primary focus. However, doing the group benefits, I think that could be pretty massive. Getting into more of the retirement planning products is also a massive thing that we've already been working on a little bit. But one of the big things that I think— I don't think we necessarily— one of the biggest things that stood out to me is we don't need to reinvent the wheel. We're already doing a lot of really, really good stuff. Like incredible stuff. And we just— I'm being too patient. I need to pedal to the metal and gas it up a little bit more.

What do you mean?

I think I could go harder. I tend to— I fall into the trap of getting stuck in the weeds, focusing on strategy and building shit out, and I lose sight sometimes of the relationships. And if I put as much effort into the relationships as I did strategy and building shit out, not to say that I shouldn't be doing that, but I think I could do both at the same time because the relationships are really what matters. And I think if I built those and focused on both at the same time, that was one of my big takeaways is I think that we've done a good job of being patient and building the foundation. But looking around the room and kind of seeing it, I was like, oh shit, we already have the foundation. The foundation is—

so you're glad to see that you're further along than you think? Yes. Yeah, which is good. Like, you know, it's always— those things are always great because you go into a bubble. Yeah, I mean, um, I, I do— I mean, I do the same thing with— I think everybody does the same thing. Like, if you're sort of focusing on what doing. You're not really sometimes looking up and seeing the forest through the trees, you know what I mean? So, yeah. Um, was there, was there any that you were like— we're not— I don't want to, I don't want to say this in like a negative way, but it was like, I guess you had like, like, how did you come to that realization? Did you see teams that were much bigger but much less?

Um, yes, a couple.

We actually have a lot of place.

Yeah, I think it was more about that, where there were a couple of teams that were bigger with less, a lot less systems and structure, it seemed. Not that everybody dove into it. I'm sure that a lot of them have really good systems and structures. But just seeing that there's more support around us, than we can imagine, and we don't have to do it on our own. I think that was the big thing because we have the support from— I mean, we've always had the support from Dana and her resources and her team, and we're very integrated there. And I've always known we've had the support from Lasting Mark, but being there in person, this was my first Lasting Mark event, and talking to everybody, really getting to feel that, I was like, oh, okay. We really don't have to do this alone. Not only do we not have to do it alone, but we would be dumb to do it alone. Yep. Okay.

And I guess, like, what are the things that— what are the things that you want to get— start getting access to or utilizing to, to make the guys, I guess, better, right? Because, like, you know, recruiting is a nice thing, obviously. So really what we're talking about is, like, getting the guys better results, getting them better trained, more on the product side or the sales side, or just like, like, what are the things that you want to tap into to, to grow it at?

Product training. I also think that from a cultural standpoint, plugging into a Lasting Mark a little bit more would be good for a lot of the guys. And then, uh, the product training is a big one though, uh, reutilizing the systems and processes that they have in place for like retirement planning. Because what— we actually had somebody, Brett, he won $500 there just from a random wheel spin because he had referred a retirement planning deal to the retirement team and they closed it. And so he didn't really do anything. He got half of the commission and he was able to sit in on the deal with them and learn and still got some money for it. And so we have resources for that. For the same thing happens with the group products. And it could be as big of companies. I mean, they work with all the biggest companies. If it's a company that's too big for the agent to go in and like if the agent's uncomfortable, the retirement or the group team will just go in, they'll fly in and take care of it. And so utilizing some of that product training a lot more, um, some of the technology as well, and just being more familiar with all of the tools that we have in place.

The B2B play is an interesting one. Yeah, I mean, very interesting, especially like to spend time getting it right for you. Yeah, I mean, and then creating a like, like a workable structure. It's definitely like, that's definitely a nut that can be cracked. I mean, yes. So yeah, yeah, that's interesting. That's probably worth some ideation and kind of figuring out what are the products, what are the avatars, and like how do you stand apart, you know?

Yeah, exactly.

Chances are most of it, I'm assuming they're probably doing— people are probably doing it through like cold calling and introduction, you know what I mean? So there's probably a better way to skin that cat. Which I don't think would be too difficult. And I guess like, so are we going to sit down and kind of redo this? Like, I guess like the growth and projections plan and like, what's that? Have you got like a new invigorated we're going to 10x this bitch or like what are the thoughts moving forward after the event?

The growth and projection plan is already pretty aggressive. I think it just made it easier for us to get there. But the growth and projection plan that we laid out at the beginning of the year was already extremely aggressive. Um, I don't know though, maybe, maybe we go more aggressive.

Why not go 10x?

10x.

Piss the competition.

Who's got my money?

Where's my money at? Yeah, cool, but Well, like, that's all I really want to go through today, but I think like this is going to be an exciting next 12 months. It's good to see that like, you know, the team's doing well. Where, where are we in terms of like lasting mark, in terms of rankings? Number 3 out of all the teams. How many teams are there?

Uh, like I think right around 100 plus or minus, probably 10 or 15.

Shit.

And one of those is Dana, who we will never be above because we're part of her.

Yes. So we can never be number one. That's frustrating. It's annoying, but I'll take it. Two is one, one is none. Yeah, right.

Yeah, exactly. This year, Dana number one. Us number 2, and then probably another team in our agency that will be number 3.

Yes, we take out 1, 2, 3, let's work. Let's do that. Chris and Gordon, take over. Just kidding. Yes, this is our place now.

Yeah, our guys are pretty fired up. Our guys, uh, they all want— they all have a goal. This is all on them. I did not make this goal, but the guys' goal is that by the end of the year, the top 10 agents in Lasting Mark will all be Sniper.

Hell yeah. So they're all those hats too, the new— the hats with the, the new like, uh, cursive logo. That looks sick.

Yeah, yeah, the guys love those. Uh, we have some shirts with the same logo, got those engraved— or not engraved, embroidered. Um, those looked really good, and I think we're, we're in a really good place.

There's something about that, that, that tagline makes people like want to go hard.

Yeah, exactly.

You know, you can't wear a sniper on your chest and be a pussy. It just doesn't— it just doesn't, doesn't make any sense. Yeah, wearing that shirt and like looking down and not working, you'd be like, I'm a piece of shit, right? It's true. Yeah, exactly. That's how you should feel. You should just hate yourself like every other rep and use that to fuel. It's caffeine and hatred. That's what sales reps are fueled on.

Well, it has been pretty cool even before the event is in the projections and part of the plan was somewhere around June, July that we would start bringing on more leaders. And by leaders, I mean people that already had teams and we've already been bringing on in the last, uh, we'll call it 6 weeks. We've brought on multiple, probably 4 or 5 people that had teams that are doing well over $100,000 in production. And so they're, they're all starting to get ramped up and get rolling. And, you know, they're— a lot of times they're just looking for better systems and structure. And it's like, you know, what are you looking for in terms of support from us? And They've kind of built these teams just on accident almost, not on accident, but they're tired of watching their agents kind of the churn come and go, come and go, come and go and come and go. And so they're coming for a lot of systems and structures, which has really sped things up. And so I think that will continue to happen. We'll continue to get more leaders and then we'll have, we'll continue to have people build from within. And we're just gonna blow this thing out of the water.

I think it's time to do some posting about it.

Yeah.

All right, time to start enacting, enacting the cult.

Let's go, let's go! We need some leaders.

20 some years. All right, guys, work hard. Yeah, if you want to work hard and, uh, you know, come into a system that makes sense and you are looking for a sales career, right? Because I would say insurance is like a proper career over like high ticket. I think, you know, as marketing gets harder and harder and harder, uh, the consolidation of the high ticket realm is going to continue. And so you can take those skills that you've got because selling high ticket is hard as in selling insurance I would say, like, on average. Um, but, uh, you can utilize those skills and put them to good work. And as long as you're not lazy fuck, because you have to work harder in insurance, but it's easier. So like, if you work decently hard and you have the skill, you will do very well very quickly. It's just kind of how it works.

And then you don't work hard, we'll let you know.

Yeah, well, you just—

you won't be around long.

I mean, so, uh, all right, man, awesome. Good shit, dude. I'm glad that it went well. And, uh, we'll get this posted up. And make sure you like and subscribe. Go over to Caden's channel as well, which we'll link down below.